A Swing , A Swing a Marvelous Thing!

At the top of the slide with Daddy...will they make it to the bottom? They made it! Happiness is the Park!

I think you'll agree the swing was a hit. :)

Wakey Wakey!!!

Definitely one of the best parts of my day.

It's So Easy Being Green

I thought I would share some pictures of Kate that I took of her in her smart green outfit. (Thanks Auntie April!) She loves to play with the green satin sash and thinks all of her outfits should come with "toys" on them. I took these pictures before we went to church. I have to say that our church has the most amazing nursery and the most incredible people that work in the nursery. On the week ends that Jared works there is no way that I could go to church with out the nursery.She loves it and can play and I can actually FOCUS on worship and the sermon. Such a blessing!



I can't even describe the face and actions that I have to use to get this laughing response. The things parents will do for a smile and a laugh.

The 19th Hole at Carson's Corner

I thought I would give you a little sneak peek into our sweet boy's room. We are calling it the 19th hole, which is golf teminology for the club house.We still have some finishing touches before we are through but this will give you a good idea. His Daddy put up the chair rail and the wooden squares. He also did the individual golfer stamps around the border of the chair rail.I will show more detail with the finished product. My favorite accessory so far is the clock on the wall. We are going for a vintage golf theme and I think the clock really sets the mood. Plus as my Mom said, "When you stumble in at 3 am you will know exactly what time it is." Good point Mom!
Carson continues to grow and grow. We will be 26 weeks on Tuesday. He is a kicker! Much more so than his big sister. It gives me great reassurance to feel his little kicks during the day and night. I think he also does somersaults and back flips in there! He is already an active little boy.Everytime I look at my blog I see those two tickers at the top and as they move together (in tandem it seems), it only reinforces how close these 2 will be in age. As Kate gets closer to turning 1 year Carson gets closer to his due date. Jared pointed out that at one time during the year we will have 2 kids that are the same age.How cool is that?

Be With Me Lord

You know how the Lord puts songs on your heart? And day after day a song pops in your head? This has been happening to me lately. That old song Be With Me Lord has popped into my head almost everyday for the last 2 weeks.

Be with me Lord
I cannot live with out thee
I cannot bear to take one step alone
I cannot bear the load of life unaided
I need thy strength to lean myself upon

I am not really sure that this is the correct order of words but I wanted to write it down exactly how it has been coming to me. It has given me a lot of comfort lately. You know how people say, would you pray for me? Or would you pray for so and so? How many times do I say yes and then don't follow through? More than I'd like to admit. But lately I have been waking up when Jared goes to work (which is pretty early) and I am unable to fall back asleep. God has put these prayer requests on my mind. All of the people in my life who need prayer flood my mind. He's not letting me get away with the old "Yes I'll pray for you....later." I would like to share my list with you. As you read them, I know that you are taking them before the Lord.

1. A dear friend that is in pain and still hasn't found a solution
2. 2 sweet friends who are going through their first trimesters of pregnancy
3. Close friends that are struggling with depression
4. A wonderful friend who is struggling in marriage
5. A friend who is lonely and depressed
6. A couple who is facing the prospect of saying good bye to their child before he is born
7. My sweet husband who fell at work and is going to work in pain this week

There are others and I know that I will think about them the minute I sign off. But I feel good knowing that whomever happens across this blog will now have these people on their mind now. Be with us Lord!

Come Again?

So there I am checking my emails before the end of the day on Thursday. A fairly innocuous email comes through from my boss stating that there is a meeting at 10 the next morning. Everyone needs to be there. The training that was planned for Friday morning is cancelled. I thought it was a little odd but we have been having some compliance issues and with the way the market has been I thought nothing of the mandatory meeting. On Friday morning we all gathered in the conference room at 10 and there are 2 people I don't recognize . That was my first clue. I lean over to my coworker and ask her who the guy in the suit is. That's the president of the company. 2nd clue. Ok well who's the lady with the notebook? Oh she's from HR. Oh crap. Anyone who has ever been in business will tell you having the president of your company and the lady from HR at a mandatory meeting is the worst combination. Nothing good can ever come of this combination.My boss started out, "There's no easy way to say this so I'm just going to say it. The bank has decided to shut down the retail mortgage division..." After that I stopped listening. And there it was my 3rd lay off from the mortgage industry in 18 months. Not necessarily a shocker but definitely different from the last two. Needless to say this presents some sticky issues with insurance considering I am 6 months pregnant.I will either be laid off on October 31st or sometime in November. As you can imagine my mind has been racing with the different possibilities. Please pray for our family as I really feel we are at a crossroads. And I feel like there are going to be some big decisions ahead for us. I know that God has us in His hands and I am not worried. He has provided before and He will provide again. As I wrote out our tithing check yesterday it was with little faith, but I have decided that this would be the worst time to stop tithing.God is trying to show me something. I just hope I am aware and smart enough to listen this time. By the way, I HATE the mortgage industry.

8 Months on the 8th!!!

Happy 8 months to the sweetest girl in the world! This girl of ours continues to amaze us everyday. I never underestimate her anymore because she always goes far beyond what I ever think she will do. I told Jared the other night that we hit the baby jackpot. This is a point in our lives as parents where we probably (ok definitely) brag on her too much to other people. But we just can't help ourselves. She is a dream come true for us. I thank God every night that He chose us to be her parents. She is a special little girl with a wonderful personality. I told Jared the other day that our love for her and for each other shows through every laugh and smile of hers. We are truly at a great time in our lives.

Kate's big 8 month news is that she got her first tooth. It popped through sometime around 7 months. And just yesterday as I was putting her in her car seat her mouth was wide open and there it was, the second one popping right on through. She is a very sociable and confident girl. Always trying to get the attention of other kids. She clicks her little tongue and claps her hands. And now when we say, "yeah!" and clap our hands with her she claps right along. I guess she realized that clapping wasn't much fun by yourself. She is a little girl through and through except for the fact that she likes to bang toy cars together. She loves the terrific sound that it makes. Instead of pulling your hair she gently flips it around. Just like how little girls play with each other's hair. She is very gentle. She loves to pat your face and if you're lucky enough she will take both hands and hold your face. It is very endearing and just melts my heart. She likes to hold an object in her hand and twist her wrist around so that she can look at it from different angles. Sometimes she will hold her hand in the air and wave like the Queen of England "hand hand wrist wrist." No crawling yet but she is definitely getting more confidence to lean forward to get on her knees.Her favorite words are "Da da da da da ....." all day long! She'll start off in a little whisper of Da da da and build into a crescendo of Da Da Da shouts. As you can imagine Jared LOVES this! She will also say "Na Na Na Na" and just this morning when I was changing her she said, "Ma Ma Ma." I will always remember this time in her life as total joy. I thank God for everyday that I lift her up from her crib and hug that warm chubby little body and she presses her little cheek to mine.So many precious moments packed into every single day. We are so blessed!

This outfit is very special. Her Daddy picked it out for her the day we found out she was going to be a girl.We were in separate parts of the store and when he brought it up to me I said, "It's perfect." We were both saying how long it would be before she could wear it. Well here we are!

Kate, expressing her opinion

This is my favorite look of hers right now. She will giveyou a sideways glance like she is really trying to figure you out. It always makes me laugh out loud!

This picture is very common for Kate right now. I must have taken 50 pictures and very few of them were of her looking at the camera. She told me she wanted a profile shot.:)

The next two pictures show her getting more confidence to lean forward and almost get on her knees. I can only imagine the next step would be crawling!


The best shot I could get of her first tooth. Two days later, the second one popped through!

The sideways glance at the Bear

Unky Burke

Last Monday I got a call at work. Normally I don't answer my cell phone there but #1 no one was around in the hallway that passes for my office and #2 it was my brother Burke who except on rare occasions keeps his phone conversations under a 2 minute time limit. He said, "I am coming to see you today is that alright?" Sure! This is how planned out he is. You see, my brother is a pilot who gets time off here and there, but sometimes he gets longer extended periods of time off. He spent the whole week with and was a huge help to us. He picked up Kate every day from the baby sitter and then picked me up from work. He formed a special little bond with Kate and he carried her pretty much everywhere we went. Kate just thinks he is the tops. I love the picture above. My big challenge usually is to get Kate to smile, no actually lately it's to get Kate to LOOK at the camera. So there I was trying to get a picture of her with Burke and she was looking directly at the camera EVERYTIME! Unheard of! But guess who wasn't? Yep! I found myself saying to my 27 year brother in a sing songy voice, "Buuurrrkee look at the camera! Give us a smile! Just once! Then were done!" He looks like he is being tortured but actually he and Kate had just been playing on the couch and he had just been saying in a high pitched voice, "Who's the prettiest girl in the world?" Ok the last part was a lie but they were having fun! Thanks Uncle Burke for all of your help. I should also mention that after he left us he went to Mexico City to help out my older brother with his 2 boys while my Sister in Law was in Canada for her brother's wedding. What a great Uncle! We love you Turk! Gums Gowens says Hi and she loves you!